Floods in Canada Cause Power Outages

Heavy rains and flooding in Alberta, Canada, swelled the Bow and Elbow rivers, flooding Calgary and cutting power. The outages could cripple businesses in the Canadian oil capital for weeks or even months, reports the Guardian.

The floods killed three people and forced more than 100,000 to leave their homes.

Flooding and power outages have hit Calgary’s city center especially hard, causing many of Canada’s oil companies to close. Some of the companies are having their employees work from home.

The Enmax utility switched off power to central Calgary last Friday, and troops were used on Sunday morning to shore up the east bank of the Bow River in Calgary and ensure the stability of an utility’s substation.

In addition, investigators are trying to determine the cause of 750 barrels of synthetic oil being spilled from a pipeline in northern Alberta. They hypothesize that the unusually heavy rains have caused ground movement at the pipeline.